Security tight in Nepal capital as King Gyanendra awaits fate

By Tripti Lahiri

Security was on high alert in Nepal's capital Tuesday after three explosions shook the city ahead of a historic meeting that is expected to abolish the country's 240-year-old monarchy.

Two small bombs were hurled outside the meeting venue Monday, along with a note by a previously unknown Hindu nationalist group claiming responsibility. Another explosion targetted the home of a key pro-republic rights activist.

Some 10,000 police had been deployed in key areas, police said, following the blasts, which caused no injuries.

Police banned protests in key areas around the palace as well as at the convention centre where the assembly, elected last month, is slated to end King Gyandra's rule on Wednesday and transform the nation into a republic.

"Security forces are on high alert, particularly around the palace, the constituent assembly meeting venue and the king's residence," said Khanal.

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Some 575 new members of Nepal's constituent assembly were to be sworn in later on Tuesday but the parties and Maoists had yet to agree on the naming of 26 other representatives as well as on the formation of a government.

"We are still trying to reach a consensus with the other political parties to form a government under our leadership," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

"But a republic will be declared at any cost."

While Gyanendra still enjoys support from Hindu hardliners and powerful elements in the armed forces and ruling elite, many in Nepal's bustling ancient capital said it was time for the king to go.

"He never did anything good for Nepal," said Parbati Bohara, 28, a nanny, as she waited for a school bus near the sprawling royal palace.

"He lived off other people's sweat."

Nepal's Maoists have brought thousands of their feared youth members, who are accused of extorting money and beating up rivals, to the city for Wednesday's assembly meeting.

"This is going to be a celebration and a display of our strength and our victory. But we will stay away from prohibited areas," said Maoist youth league head Sagar, who goes by one name.

The Maoists waged a bloody decade-long revolt to topple the monarchy and install a communist republic but now say they have embraced multiparty democracy.

Some people wondered if the king would stand by the assembly's decision.

"If someone came into your house and tried to take you out by force, would you go?" asked policeman Bhim Bahadur, 48. "It's not possible to end the monarchy like that."

The dour-faced Gyanendra was vaulted to the throne by the 2001 massacre of his popular brother Birendra and most of the royal family by a drink-and-drug-fuelled crown prince, who later killed himself.

As the Maoist revolt gained strength, he staged what amounted to a royal coup, dismissing the government in 2005. But huge pro-democracy protests by the political parties and the Maoists forced him to hand back power a year later.

The mainstream parties and the former rebels agreed on a peace deal in 2006, ending an insurgency that left 13,000 people dead.

Last month the Maoists grabbed the biggest share in the new 601-seat assembly with 220 seats, following elections that marked the next step of the peace process.

Gyanendra, who has kept a low profile since 2006, spent the weekend at his summer retreat outside Kathmandu but returned to his palace in the city late Monday to await his fate, officials said.

Royalists said the country would suffer without the monarchy.

"Even bees have a ruler. Otherwise they would scatter and die," said policeman Bahadur. "Nepal needs a king."